(Trinidad Express) Just two days after epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds warned that the country could begin seeing near 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 being recorded each day, the country has recorded its highest number of newly confirmed cases.
A whopping 781 new cases were reported yesterday, the highest figure reported in a single day. Until now, the highest daily reported figure was 708 on May 21 from samples taken over a seven-day period.
The Ministry said the 781 new cases represent results of samples taken over a five-day period between November 12-16.
From Saturday to yesterday, 1,565 new cases had been reported, which also included samples taken from November 12 and onward.
On Monday, Hinds had predicted that the daily figures could climb to as much as 1,000 by the end of the November.
“Looking at the end of this month, if we continue at the rate we were going for the first few couple of weeks in November, the possibility of getting to 1,000 cases a day is actually quite real,” Hinds had said.
He said there was a 60 per cent increase in cases between the two previous weeks and he expressed hope that this week would not exceed last week’s total.
Last week’s total confirmed cases was 2,947. For this week thus far 1,943 cases have been recorded.
Yesterday Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh noted that new cases have risen significantly since March when there was a rolling average of three cases per day. The country has been recording figures upwards of 400 and 500 daily for the past few days.
And with the State of Emergency being lifted yesterday, along with the approaching Christmas season, Deyalsingh said people must exercise personal responsibility.
“The population has to go back, and we have to emphasise the three Ws if we are to manage this spike especially in the light of a low vaccination rate,” he said.
Overall, for the month of November thus far, 6,536 people have tested positive for the virus.
The 781 new cases increased the total confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic to 63,865. Of those, 7,689 cases are active.
While new cases saw a dramatic increase yesterday, the death toll fell to single digits after a particularly deadly week which saw 22 deaths recorded in one day on Saturday.
The Ministry said six more people died of the virus, taking the death toll to 1,891.
The deceased patients were three elderly men, two middle-age men and one middle-age woman.
One of the deaths, an 80-year-old man, occurred in Tobago which brought the island’s death toll to 107.
The Ministry said five of the patients had multiple co-morbidities including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. One person had one co-morbidity, namely obesity.
A total of 195 people have died of the virus this month so far.
In Tobago, 32 new cases were recorded, taking active cases on the island to 381.
The total number of recovered patients has increased to 54,285, as 61 patients were discharged from public health facilities and 196 people were released from home self-isolation.
Hospital occupancy levels continue to rise with 473 people receiving treatment across the parallel healthcare system. This is the highest number of persons being hospitalised for Covid-19 since June 14 when 494 persons were hospitalised.
Of the 89 patients at Couva Hospital, 26 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 25 are in the high dependency unit (HDU). Six patients are in the Covid-19 ICU at the Scarborough General Hospital in Tobago.
